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Thursday, September 06, 2007

It is lamentable that all kidnappings in Iraq are carried out by the Iraq Police Force (totally insurgent controlled) and are conducted gangster style for money:

An August 9, 2007 article in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat presented the views of six Al-Azhar sheikhs on the permissibility of kidnapping and holding hostages. According to all six, Islam forbids kidnapping civilians, holding them hostage, or harming or threatening to harm them. The following are excerpts from the article:

Asked whether Islam permits holding hostages, Dr. Ja'far 'Abd Al-Salam, secretary-general of the Union of Islamic Universities and former vice-president of Al-Azhar University, replied: "Islam does not permit actions of this kind, which contradict the principles of justice and compassion that Islam has brought to all mankind..."Islamic shari'a allows restricting someone's freedom only [in punishment for] a crime committed by that person..."Actions of this kind have been unknown throughout the 14 centuries of Islamic history. There is nothing in the shari'a to justify them. It would be a profound offense to Islam and to the Muslims if [the name of] Islam became associated with actions of this sort – for Islam is against oppression, no matter what the nationality or the religion of the oppressed."